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Gordy Venneri, Owner/Winemaker
Walla Walla Vintners |
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| Myles Anderson, Walla Walla Vintners Owner |
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| Paul & Diane Birkeland |
This past weekend has been a non-stop adventure for 24 ZINO Society members and friends as we ventured to Walla Walla for an insiders' wine tour and tastings. We managed to meet the winemakers and owners of 14 different wineries in the area and tasted over 60 wines during that time.
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| Steve Hall & Leslie Ritter |
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| Cathi Hatch dreaming of driving the forklift |
ZINO Society member and wine aficianado
Paul Birkeland,
ZINO Society Wine Professional member and winery owner
Kathleen Schafer of
àMaurice Cellars and I worked together to put together what turned out to be a fantastic trip chock full of special insider opportunities for the guests.
We arrived in Walla Walla on Thursday afternoon, checked into the
Marcus Whitman Hotel and met our coach driver,
Joe, who would take us from place to place for the next three days.
Joe is quite an entrepreneur and salesman and sequentially tried to sell us a home he had built, an antique car that he has for sale, land in Walla Walla, his services as a contractor, YMCA membership and future wine tours and trips led by him. He and his wife own
Dream Ride Charters and are in the process of adding another larger coach to their fleet as soon as he arranges a business loan. Once he realized that banker,
John Rindlaub along with wife
Sarah was onboard, he began selling himself in earnest. And in his spare time,
Joe is also a fireman.
Paul provided insider information, wine education and discussed interesting facts about the winemakers and the wineries we would be visiting as we were enroute to each winery. Our first stop was
Walla Walla Vintners where we had a tour and tasting led by owners,
Gordy Venneri and
Myles Anderson. We were very pleased to find
Myles in good health after we had heard a false report of his demise.
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| Mike Dunham |
From there, we were whisked to
Dunham Cellars for a tour and tasting led by
Mike & Joann Dunham, owners, and then a casual, farm buffet supper. Winemaker and owner,
Eric Dunham joined us later during dinner.
Dunham Cellars is a visual treat for the eyes with
Eric's paintings lining the walls, many of which have become wine bottle labels and sparkling white lights hanging in cloud clusters from the ceiling. Their three rescue dogs are all part of the charm of being there and we so enjoyed our time there with
Mike,
Joann and
Eric.
Then back to our coach and off to bed for some in our group and martinis and guitar playing and sing-a-long for others.
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| The muse for Dunham Four-Legged White. |
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| Eric Dunham, Ken Hatch, Douglas Howe |
There's something I would definitely want to do someday - tour a winery. Admittedly, part of me wasn't expecting to see a forklift in these pictures, but, after a little thought, I guess even in a winery, a forklift can be a very useful machine.
ReplyDeleteYes, definitely. Moving stacks of cases around as well as barrels, it appears it would be a necessity.
ReplyDeleteMakers furnishes bunches of new characteristics and engineering, their forklifts can lift or transport substantial obligation machines or questions quite effortlessly. However I suppose Toyota offers an assorted and greater choice of forklifts with complete characteristics.
ReplyDelete